The Mindset Forge
In Season Five, The Mindset Forge focuses on helping men between 40 - 60 years old maximized this chapter of life by building strength, discipline, purpose and a proactive mindset.
During Season's one through four, you will fantastic content focused mainly on successful athletes and performing artists who've learned how to show up for the big moments of sports, performance and life.
The Mindset Forge
Embodying Tenacity from the Gym to the Big Screen with Maurice Moore
Approaching the age of 50 with the same fervor as my younger years hasn't been a walk in the park. Luckily, Maurice Moore joined me to share the secrets of his vitality, providing invaluable insights into how he's crafted a career in the demanding world of showbiz while keeping health and fitness at the forefront. As we unravel Maurice's remarkable journey from a small-town kid in North Carolina to a Hollywood hotshot, we discover the critical interplay between physical vigor and professional triumph.
This episode is a deep dive into the discipline that fuels success across all of life's arenas. Maurice and I dissect how the rigor of maintaining fitness and the mental fortitude it cultivates spill over into the relentless entertainment industry and personal lives. We also get candid about the importance of intrinsic motivation—how it outstrips the allure of fame and fortune—and how consistency in the gym can act as a metaphor for steadfastness in family, career, and personal aspirations.
But the conversation doesn't stop at just fitness. Maurice's acting chops and the transformative power of theater education are also under the spotlight. We revisit his early break into acting alongside industry legends, the mentorships that shaped his path, and the mindset that's required to master the craft. If you're seeking inspiration to pursue your passions or looking to imbue your middle years with purpose and health, Maurice's journey is a testament to the power of resilience, discipline, and knowledge as the ultimate tools for overcoming life's hurdles.
Maurice Moore describes himself as a “storyteller”, whom at an early age received a life
changing opportunity when Steven Spielberg cast him in the Academy Award nominated classic “The Color Purple”. This fueled his passion to become an actor, then ultimately a producer and filmmaker. Maurice went on to hone his talent on the stage and screen working in productions from Austin to Los Angeles.
After a decade long stint in Los Angeles where he found success as a screenwriter, filmmaker, and producer Maurice took his valuable business experience to Austin, TX where he created Motivate Pictures.
Within the first five years of its existence Maurice, working alongside his long time
cinematographer Alex Rios, has turned Motivate Pictures into a multi-award-winning
production company including films such as “The Devil Inside Us”, “DejaVu” and “The Place She Dwells” With that success Motivate Pictures has expanded globally and created Motivate Pictures Europe! Maurice and his team have gone on to produced critically acclaimed projects all over Europe that includes “Skillz”, “The Heist”, “Light”, “Blue”, “Cold Love”, “Executive Decision” and “And Justice” to name a few. Maurice’s recent features film, the psychological thriller “Finding Solace”, will hit theaters in the
fall of 2024.
For tickets to the Biohacker's World Conference in Austin, Texas on April 6 -7th, Use this link and use Promo Code "TEAMBRYAN" at check out for a discount.
https://www.biohackers.world/
Maurice is the founder and Acting Coach of the nationally acclaimed Breathe Acting Studio! http://breatheactingstudio.com
Email: Barton@bartonguybryan.com
Website: http://bartonguybryan.com
Use this link to get a 30 minute discovery call scheduled with Barton regarding the Team Bryan Wellness Concierge Fitness Program
https://calendly.com/bartbryan/conciergecoachingcall
My 3 Top Episodes of the first 100:
7 Essentials to Building Muscle after 40
3x Olympic Gold Medalist Brendan Hansen
MMA Strength and Conditioning Coach Phil Daru
You are listening to the Mindset Forge podcast. I'm Barton Bryan, your host. As a personal trainer and entrepreneur, I am so aware that this is a very challenging time, this 40 to 60 chapter of our lives, and it's just my passion to help you and myself, as I'm going through this with you, really figure out how to do it the best possible way. You know, not just physically in terms of our fitness, but mentally, emotionally just handle it all and do it the best possible way. You can Come the best version of ourselves. And so, with these interviews recently and the ones today that you're about to listen to, really trying to get to the root of like what makes guys tick that are really like in that space of like living their best life. So today, no exception, I've got Maurice Moore. Now he is an actor, producer, he's has his own production company, he does Hollywood movies, he's here in Austin, texas, and you know he really understands the complexity but also the need to really master your health, your nutrition, your fitness, so that you have the energy and the, you know the strength to be able to do the type of thing that he does. And he's going to talk about all that kind of stuff, including the backstory, how he got into acting and the small talent he grew up in in North Carolina and you know just the relationships that he built, just as an eight year old. But we're also going to talk to him as a as a leader of the teacher, as a father and somebody who's about to turn 50. And what that means to him, how he thinks about 50 and why it's such an important number, I mean, probably for all of us. I'm 48, about to be 49. So you know that that number is kind of out there in the future and I'm excited to see how I'm going to handle that, that transition from, you know, 49 to 50 and beyond. So this is really great. I think you're going to get a lot out of it. He is not just somebody who excels at achievement and has a talent as an artist, but somebody who really believes in helping the next generation experience and fulfill their potential.
Speaker 1:Before we kick it off here, I wanted to talk about a couple of things. First off is I mentioned last week, there is this biohacker world conference here in Austin, texas. This is April 6 and 7. It's going to be downtown. It is fantastic there's got so many people in this space of longevity, biohacking, fitness and that whole kind of wellness space. I'll be a part of the conference itself, but I'll also be bringing my clients there and I've got some tickets to give away.
Speaker 1:So here's what you can do. You have two ways to do it. You're going to enter the raffle A shoot me an email. You find that in my website, bartongibriandcom, or in the show notes. Or you can go to my Facebook page and make a comment in the most recent article I posted about health and wellness. Okay, either way, you're going to get put into raffle to win some free tickets. Also, if you don't win, there's a link to get you a very nice discount on tickets for the weekend in the show notes. Check it out there. Last but not least, I want to shout out one of my new concierge clients, chris. We've been friends for a while, but he just recently decided to go enjoy my concierge program so we can get the support on the entire wellness journey that he's on, because he's got big goals in 2024 to get in the best shape of his life.
Speaker 1:All right, without further ado, let's kick it off. Buckle up y'all. This is awesome. My conversation with Maurice Moore. All right, maurice, thank you so much for being on the podcast. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2:I'm great man. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. Yeah, man.
Speaker 1:So, just real quick, I know Maurice from the gym. He's the other guy that works out as much as me. There's about three or four of us that are literally in there almost every day and so but you're about to turn 50. You're about six months away. So, as you're coming to that point of being 50, as fit as you are and as much as you work out, like, what are some of the things that you're just thinking about in terms of, like, your fitness, and how are you tweaking things to make sure that you're adapting to, you know, this time of your life?
Speaker 2:It's interesting, the last couple of months have probably been a couple of the most important months of what I say in my life, because everything is about me turning 50.
Speaker 2:And I don't think about 50 as I'm getting old, because I don't think that's old at all. I think of 50 as this is another, the next phase of my life, and how do I want the next, maybe 50 years to look? And what I got to do to adjust and fitness was number one on the list is fitness and knowledge. So I've been reading a lot of books as well, and so with the, with the fitness, it was like what can my body do and what do I need to do with my body now that keeps me active, keeps me healthy, keeps me moving, keeps me mobile. And how do I switch up? You know workouts I've been doing. What's my nutrition like now, as opposed to even five years ago?
Speaker 2:Because, especially with my family African American family from the south we like to eat a certain way. My family looks sometimes a little different than I do, so I have to be very careful with how I eat and how I work out, and turning 50 makes it even more challenging in how I work out and how I eat. So I've had to be more specific about what am I? What am I putting in my body? Fasting a little bit more throughout the week, a lot of protein. That's always kind of the thing. I do A lot of protein, I do complex carbs, I do kind of some of the keto stuff. As far as carbs go, I do a lot of wheat. But the gym is my sanctuary every morning Somebody saw me the other day and go. You're in here on Saturday too, like almost every day, dude, like definitely six times a week and one day of yoga and just kind of maneuvering through my upper body, my lower body and doing things that keeps me fit without pushing myself to the point where I can't get out of bed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, you're an actor, a director, a producer. You're on a production company Like. You're doing so many things wearing so many hats. Talk about how fitness, you know has has allowed you the opportunity to really be your best, not just as an actor, but like just in the in the context of like, how busy and how immersed you are in that field.
Speaker 2:That. That's probably the number one reason I can do all of the things that you just said, and I don't I don't mean that as a joke, like it requires a lot of energy to be an actor, director, writer, and not that, oh, I got all this. I'm this guy. It's my fitness helps my energy and this is a sunup to sundown job. It's not not a nine to five. It doesn't ever end.
Speaker 2:I work weekends, I shoot long hours, I'm I'm working with actors, I'm doing different things, I'm writing screenplays, and if I don't wake up in the morning and go to the gym and get in my hour and a half, two hours of what I think my, my, my physical nutrition is, my days are shot, like my energies low, I don't feel like doing certain things, and so the gym is the one reason why I think I can do all of the things that I do consistently throughout the year with my work and my job, because it gives me the energy. I like feeling good, I like feeling accomplished by nine o'clock in the morning, I like knowing I've done more than what most people do in a whole day, and that feeds my energy, that makes me want to go out and push myself even harder in in the field and in the industry and that kind of thing. So, and if I didn't have my gym workouts, like if it's taken away from me, or if we had to take a little time off?
Speaker 2:because, a little bit of an injury. It drives me nuts, man. It drives me nuts. I want to. I want to be in there. It's motivating just to be able to do the things that we still can do at this age.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think you know the word I was thinking as you were talking about that is like it gives you an edge, absolutely. You know, and I think people that are competitive, people that are driven, like you nod your head because I'm pegging you here a little bit, but yeah, like I mean, that's part of the reason that you're able to be successful and able to have a career and not just kind of fade away, is that you. You figured out your edge, you figured out how to nourish your body, to get the best out of yourself. Talk about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you've seen me in the gym. I've seen you in the gym. You work really hard, dude, and I like to think I work really hard and I have people come up to me because I do hit training in between.
Speaker 1:Yeah people.
Speaker 2:Are people going dude like, do you ever stop moving? And I don't, because there is that competitive edge. I'm incredibly competitive. I was an athlete for a long time. I played football and basketball in high school and college. When I watch sports Now, I'm really competitive and I try to find ways that keeps me competitive, especially in my industry, yeah and and so in the gym it's kind of the same way.
Speaker 2:I'm not trying to outdo someone else, that's I don't. I don't have that kind of ego, but for me I don't like the idea of being lazy or not pushing myself as much as I possibly can. And when I look back I got high school A couple of days ago I was looking at some high school reunion pictures and some stuff that was going on and I got friends that I went to school with that looks older than me. I'll say it like that. It looked a lot older than I do because they don't necessarily work out I don't mean this in a negative way Don't necessarily work out or eat a certain way. And I think you know my fitness helps keep, keeps me vibrant and gives me that energy and keeps me hopefully somewhat young looking and I feel that way.
Speaker 2:And so when I'm in a gym and I see people like you and I see some of the other guys just said I want to keep up. You know what I mean. It's not being better than it's, just I want to keep up. It's like if those guys can do that, I got to figure out ways that I can. I can do that as well, and it is a bit of an edge and I like it, it, it.
Speaker 2:It gives me something to feel good about, that type of accomplishment, which makes me then go into my, my work and say what else can I do? Today? It really is that if I can do this, what else can I? Can I do? And in my industry I'm always trying to find an edge. I'm always trying to find the right story and push the right narrative and and there's a lot of competition in what I do and in the entire world the Academy Award nominations came out yesterday and I'm competing with all of those individuals and so I have to find the right idea and focus. And if it starts with me, ben, in a gym.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I, you know, I love when people and guys at the gym will come up to me and just be like, hey, man, just like you inspire me. You know, it's not that I'm looking for the ego boost, I just I realized it's. It's nice to know that, like the, you know that You're getting noticed for the work you're putting in, like it's. And if somebody else is showing up going like I want to be more like him, then that's motivating to me because I know that like people are watching and people are being, like they're getting better by by me being there, right, and I think that's a cool, that's a cool aspect of it. My company is called Motivate Pictures.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's called that for a reason 100 percent based on what you said. Yeah, I have taken taking ownership of something that I don't have to do, but it's kind of sort of happened naturally throughout my life and I'm choosing to do and that's kind of sort of being a motivator for certain people who need it. I didn't ask for that but for whatever reasons, throughout my life people have come to me for advice or to see me in the gym or some of the work that I do, and I'm with you 100 percent. If somebody comes up to me and say hey, dude, last week I saw you in here and it inspired me to do this, then it's beautiful for me. I like that's great. But, like you said, it's not because of my ego. It makes me go. I need to keep working harder.
Speaker 2:I need to keep doing this because somebody is seeing it, somebody is being influenced by something positive that I'm doing and that is huge for me. That is everything for me. It's what I try to teach my daughter and, like I said, it's why I have the company name that I have, because that's a part of I. I think why I'm here and why I do what it is that I do and I don't seek it out, I don't go, let me do it. It's there because of what I put in and if I put it in, then people get something from it.
Speaker 1:Well, it's real. People can feel that Like you're just out there grinding Like a percent, a percent.
Speaker 2:And I like the idea of they. If they see that I'm working hard as opposed to just saying it. I'm just trying to tell somebody something, but they actually see me doing it. That's, I think, is even more powerful, right.
Speaker 1:Well, you're walking the walk.
Speaker 2:You're not just like out there Look is what you, I, should do Exactly, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1:Well now you just mentioned it yeah, you're a father, you have a production company, You're all. You're doing so many things and you're dealing with your fitness. Like how do you make it all? Like you know, you've got the family, the relationship, your wife, all those things. You've got the all the things with work that you have to kind of keep, keep managed and you have your fitness Like what I love is that how you've tied the fitness piece into the energy it takes to do all the others. Like like I think that's something that people have a hard time with. If they're not exercising enough or not getting the the energy that it comes from being healthy, they see the exercise pieces like something that's going to pull energy away from the other parts of your life. Talk about how that they feel, they feel each other.
Speaker 2:It's, it's, it's that complete opposite for me. Yeah, the, the, the discipline and the consistency that it requires for me to be at the gym every day and up at six o'clock in the morning at the gym, between six 30 and seven o'clock it. It helps me then bring that type of consistency and discipline into my family, into my job, into everything else that I do, because I that is to me the most important thing when it comes to help the nutrition. Anyway, like you, if you have to be disciplined, you have to be consistent because it's hard, it requires a lot for people and everybody's on different levels and everybody have different goals that they have and if they don't see results at a certain time, it can be easy to kind of slow down or push away because it requires that type of discipline and consistency.
Speaker 2:If I can do that in my for myself, because that's my own individual need for me to feel healthy, for me to feel strong, I need that consistency. Well, once I'm able to do that and say I can do that for my individual self, then I can also give that then to my family, into my job, into the focuses that I. The other focuses that I do have is when I don't have the consistency in the gym. It takes away from those other areas because in my mind, I'm going on not where I need to be, or I should have been better. I don't feel healthy or strong, and so I'm going to take away from you know what's happening with my family, or I'm going to eat whatever I want to eat for dinner, as opposed to focusing on something that's really more healthy and that that triggers down to the family.
Speaker 2:Yeah so with my daughter. She's very she's 22 and she's very into fitness. She was going to school initially for physical therapy and training and then she went to hair styling and all those different things. So now she's doing kind of both of them and that's because of stuff that her and I have been working on for a very long time. My family is very, very athletic and into the gym. You've seen Jen and I work together in the gym. It's important to the consistency and health of my family that my fitness is consistent in my daily life and it all just fits together and then we can have conversations and dialogue about it. You know we can help each other. We can motivate and push each other as a family to understand what's good and not good and what we should and shouldn't be doing or when we can have cheat days and have some fun doing those kinds of things too. But more importantly, it gives us even more stuff to work towards and work together at.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So from what I've read and learned about you, you grew up with not a lot in terms of, you know, financial situation, that kind of stuff. You grew up in a small town in North Carolina. You have some amazing family members around you to teach you the great lessons and such. But coming so far and being who you are today and the things that you've learned like what is your advice to people chasing things that money, fame, looks, those types of things Versus like the more intrinsic motivators health, you know, a passion in your career, love and relationships.
Speaker 2:Don't chase anything. When you start chasing the money and the fame, then your focus is in the wrong place. In my opinion. Yeah, do what you absolutely love and do what motivates you to get up every single morning. I love going to the gym. I love even when it hurts, I love being in the gym. So there's no amount of money, one way or the other, that changes that for me. I do that for me.
Speaker 2:I love filmmaking. It is my passion, it is what I'm supposed to be doing, whether I'm good at it or not. It's what gets me up in the morning. I can't guarantee that I'm going to make a million dollars. I can't guarantee any of the actors that I work with that they're going to be stars. I can't say we're going to be famous. I do it because I love it and whatever the results of that are the results of that.
Speaker 2:So every day for me is more about the motivation, of what makes me happy and what I'm supposed to be doing simply in my life, to be the best human being I can possibly be and to be the best role model. Because it's there and I can't do anything about that the best role model I can possibly be, and then the results of that usually work out pretty good Good opportunities, good projects feel good, good relationships. And that's the most important thing to me, because I can't control all the other stuff. What I can control is me and what gets me out of bed every morning, and that's what I tell anybody who wants to know what's important to me and what they can be doing, just simply to be successful people. And I say find a reason every morning to wake up that excites you, that you're willing to work hard for, and to sacrifice for and not complain about. If you're doing those things, then everything else, in my opinion, will take care of yourself Because you're willing to work hard enough for the success at that point in time.
Speaker 1:So what if someone's response is yeah, but I have this thing, I have this obstacle. This is a society full of triggers and things that we can't talk about or that send people into a panic. Talk about that durability or the mindset that you've developed to really show up every single day and not let the obstacles of life and society get you down.
Speaker 2:I've had lots of obstacles, and as well as many other people. The biggest thing about obstacles is sometimes people are fortunate when they don't know it, and I'm one of those people. For example, I grew up incredibly poor and struggled a lot with a lot of things for a very, very long time, and I'm fortunate for that, because it made me appreciate what working hard is. It made me appreciate earning certain things. It made me appreciate what I didn't have and not take that for granted. It made me appreciate anything that I'm able to acquire now isn't nearly as important as the love that I was surrounded by at the time that I didn't have any of those, and the challenges that I had to face or overcome to have even the smallest bit of success came from me believing that I can overcome any challenges that were there. And the big thing for me when it comes to sharing with other people is mostly about are we feeling sorry for ourselves, which I understand can happen, so I don't say that negatively, and if we are, that's fine for a moment, but it's not going to help us get to that next step. So we have to find a place within ourselves that says this is hard, this is challenging but I can do it. First that becomes a self-belief and understanding that you can, because we all have a skill set or an understanding about who we are, that we know that we're good at something or something moves us or something that we have a dream to do. And then everything else is so how do I do it? And I was actually talking to my daughter today and she was struggling with a couple of things that was happening with some friends and people are in different places, so you can't tell somebody what they can and can't do. But what you can start to do is understand if you want something, it's not simply the want is what am I willing to do to accomplish it, even when those obstacles are in the way? Because it's very easy to say those obstacles are keeping me from doing this, and then you don't do it. And then five months later, six months later, you're still in the same exact place before and you're still complaining and you're still upset and you're still sad and that's not doing anybody any good. But if you go, this may be hard, but I want to do this. So how do I actually do it and start making a list of those things, of how to accomplish it in a time frame that it may take even if it says it's going to take me a year to do this then make the list of what it's going to require and in that year, start putting those steps in place. And that, once you get beyond that, once you start putting those steps in place, those little, little baby steps, that's all. They take little, no big changes right away.
Speaker 2:I've heard you say something, I think in one of your shows, before we talk about people who try to take on too much at one time and it's hard to right. I thought I was so connected to that. I was like man, he is absolutely right, because some of us want to do all these big things all at the same time and it's not possible. And I think some of that comes from maybe watching social media and thinking everybody's done all these great things all at once it's not, it's all baby steps, man.
Speaker 2:It's all one little step at a time, every day, doing something a little bit more and a little bit more, showing those little bit of small successes, appreciating those small successes, giving yourself a little bit something else to do.
Speaker 1:Otherwise we find ourselves being victims and and playing that role, and sometimes that can get to be comfortable, but we never get anything out of it no, and if a guy's listening to this and you're, he's 40 and he sees you would be like he it should, he should expect that it would take 10 years. I mean it's probably more, but let's you know, like to put together the type of discipline, habits and work ethic it would take to become as fit as you are right now. You know about to walk into your 50s. You know we all we want all that in in three months and we want to fix everything because we get so down on all the things that we don't like about ourselves. We want to like immediately emancipate ourselves from all these like bad habits and it just doesn't. It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 2:It's not realistic and and and I think most people probably know that but because we wanted and needed, because we're so unhappy in certain areas of our life.
Speaker 2:It'd be nice if it just kind of flip the switch, but I say this all the time when it comes to especially fitness. Fitness is is is easy way to. An easy analogy for this, like you said, is if, if, if we don't look the way we want to look. It probably took us a long time to get to that point of not looking at where we want to look right, didn't take a week, it didn't take a week, right, we didn't just kind of fall out and go hmm man, it's not working.
Speaker 2:No, we, it took us some time, in years, probably the big scheme of things.
Speaker 2:If we say, when I was 20 I looked like this and now I'm 35 and that's 15 years, yeah, well, if you're 35 and you go, I want to look like I did when I was 20 something, then it's going to require time, yeah, and if you can start with unlocking your brain to the point of being open to say what I need to do will require time, that's the first major step, because after that you have to start applying that process and that is a day to day, that's a minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day process.
Speaker 2:That requires that time. And then when you start seeing results which could take a little time to see the kind of results you're looking for, if you can stick it out long enough and that's where the discipline and the consistency consistency comes into play then you start to see those results and that should be motivating enough to say, oh, it's possible, right, let me stick with it and keep going. Right, and that's a beautiful thing. It just it's not as easy as as I'm making it sound and I know that, and some people don't see results in two weeks and it makes it challenging for them well, the ease in your explanation is that you know it works if they just stay the course.
Speaker 2:Stay the course.
Speaker 1:Like just yeah, it's not going to take. I always tell people you know it's going to take longer than you want it to and it's going to be more rewarding than you ever thought 100% that's a great way to think about it.
Speaker 2:100% and I've seen that happen and I know that you have, especially as a trainer, seen that happen. Yeah, and the unfortunate part is not everyone sticks to it because they don't trust, or it's hard, and it is hard, it is hard.
Speaker 1:Well, there's the extrinsic like I want to look good Right, like it's like we all want to look good naked right.
Speaker 1:That's a great motivator and I'm fine with people wanting to like fit in a dress or have you know, muscular arms or whatever, like whatever external extrinsic thing motivates you. Great. But in the journey to get there, my job as a trainer and your job as somebody going that down that journey is to develop the intrinsic habits so that when you get there you're like, because it's the like, I lost 20 pounds to go on vacation and now I'm back and I have no more motivation because I was only just trying to look good in my bathing suit.
Speaker 2:For that period of time.
Speaker 1:But if you learned the process if you developed the habits along the way. You come back from Cancun you're like I'm locked in. You know I'm not. I'm still eating. Well, I'm still going to the gym. I love this life 100%.
Speaker 2:I'm in Cancun going. Okay, I can't have any carbs, so what's on the menu? I'm doing? It because especially now at.
Speaker 1:I'm like I'm going to put all the meat on the plate first and then I'll like I have a little section for like food or carbs or something.
Speaker 2:Because I am like you know, at this age it's hard to come back from a little bit of weight gain or not being able to work out at the gym the way I want to. Every place that I go to doesn't always have like a gym. That really suits me. So in my workouts get hard stuff. I'm gone for a week and people say this all the time like one of the worst things that fitness people can do is go on vacation, Because everything about their routine changes.
Speaker 2:And so I try to focus even when I'm there. So when I come back I don't have so far to come back from it. I'm not telling people don't go to Cancun and enjoy it. I'm saying me I have. It's more of a challenge for me to come back to the other side if I don't have at least some focus while I'm there. I think that's.
Speaker 1:but that's like a.
Speaker 1:You know it sucks when you realize that like after 40 or like you know, for me was really like 44, 45 that it really kicked in that like this realization, that like it's so much harder to get, to get back on the horse in a sense.
Speaker 1:But I think it also it demands you have more real discipline. If you can rely on the fact that you are an athlete and you kind of like, you can burn body fat pretty quickly when you like get back on track, like I leveraged that when I was in my thirties, because I get a little fluffy and then I go back to gym and I just tighten up my diet and it was like three weeks I was back, but but that wasn't the case in my 40s, and so it really made me realize like I have to have better discipline and I have to have better habits that don't fall away. You know, and you because, like, because if you rely on like you know whether it's talent, again it's like, it's like, it's like DNA talent, like some, something that you were like God given. You know being tall, you can hide fat on a tall body. I'm going to tell you right now.
Speaker 2:Exactly, you know, and that's actually kind of interesting that you say that, because I'm I'm relatively short and even when I was an athlete in school I was. I was really fast, right, that was kind of my my thing, but I was never the biggest guy and I certainly wasn't a tallest guy, so I had to find other ways to stand out and to be successful. That required me to be disciplined, that required me to work harder in other areas in order to build something. That gave me a bit more of an edge, because I didn't have all the natural God given talent or ability that other individuals have, and so you're a hundred percent right about that.
Speaker 2:The other thing for me especially recently but it has my entire life, but especially recently that has made me focus more on fitness and nutrition probably is that you know my health status and my family is not great. For example, I'm 49 years old and I have high blood pressure. I found out two years ago that I had high blood pressure and at two years ago I was in better shape than I am now, and I think I'm in pretty good shape and I eat good. I work out seven days a week. There's no reason why I should have high blood pressure. But because I'm African American and in my family it is rampant. Most I should say most of my family, a lot of members in my family, are overweight. People don't eat the way that I want them to eat, or I think they should eat, and I go home and they go you're not healthy. Look at you and I'm going no, it's the other way, it's the other way around. And then I'm there for two days and they go tell me what you're eating.
Speaker 2:Tell me what.
Speaker 2:And now then we started working on some things, but what ends up happening for me is that if I don't find a certain amount of discipline and stay consistent with my nutrition and fitness, that it'd be easy for me to fall out of what I have, because genetically I can go down that road easy, as opposed to just being at our age, because age is part of it, and then when you got it genetically, I've really got to work really hard to do it.
Speaker 2:And so it plays a part in my focus and what I want and need to do, and especially just for all African American individuals. Anyway, men and women, we do have this, this predisposition of this, happening with us, so that should be a part of our focus and motivation to stay somewhat healthy and eat somewhat nutrition, because we are prone to some of those issues that we can prevent If we spend a little bit more time just eating a little less of the sodium and the fats and a little bit more of the veggies and the right fruits and that kind of thing. And so that's just my little sneak in there to my community that I'm excited and proud to want to motivate, because it's important for us to know that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you have 23 and me and these types of DNA family history. You can start. Whatever your background is, you can find out. You may know how my grandfather passed away at 55. He might just sleep one night, never woke up at 55 years old and he was generally healthy, wasn't over, wasn't really that overweight. But you know they didn't really know had no idea.
Speaker 1:So it's in me to have that kind of predisposition to like heart disease and stuff like that, but you know, so I'm checking that stuff out regularly and that kind of thing. And I think everybody's responsibility is like, if you know you're predisposed to being a certain way or have, you know, high cholesterol, blood pressure, whatever it is like, let that be a motivator, Let that be like a chip that you're going to like play and be just that much more determined to like you know, not fall into that.
Speaker 2:I love that and I'm with you 100%. And it is so frustrating when not enough individuals that I spend time with, or including my family. See it that way.
Speaker 1:They know how do they? What's the frame that they're looking at it from?
Speaker 2:They mostly look at it from. This is just what I've always done. It's one of those things just like just like anything else. When you've done and been who you are your entire life.
Speaker 2:Change is hard and it's scary. And most of the reason why it's hard and scary is because you don't have the knowledge to figure out how to do it differently. So it's easy to just kind of fall back into your bad habits. So if you don't have a coach or a teacher or somebody there consistently every day kind of saying no, no, no, no, not that, but this, it's easy for you to go. I should be having this, but, boy, that show look good right now and I'm just going to do that. And that can be disappointing. Because you're talking about family members dying at young ages. I can. I've been away more funerals than I ever should in my entire life and diabetes runs in my family. You know, high cholesterol, sugar all of that is a major part of my family and I and I talk to family members, or in even, you know, my mom, and I'm like, okay, we got to do better than this. You can't have this every night. You can't be eating that for breakfast. I won't even mention what these things are Okay.
Speaker 2:You can't, mom, you can't be having that for breakfast and think that it's okay, I know, I know. And then she still has it for breakfast. You know, because it's just, it's just who and what she's been doing her entire life. If she lived with me it would be different, because I'd be beating these things. And so what you're saying is absolutely true. The challenge is, a lot of these individuals don't know how to do anything different, even when the doctors are doing it.
Speaker 1:Tradition is such a like a beautiful part of society, like if you're you grow up in a tradition where mom does it this way because grandma does it this way great grandma. And one of the things that I thought about and look, and growing up, you know, in California, like there were, we didn't have that many traditions around food. It was really more just kind of whatever was kind of like the thing to eat. I mean, I remember when TV dinners kind of showed up and we were huge Sacramento Kings fans so it was like all of a sudden we got away from saying amen, we literally would sing that before, like the early times of my childhood, but then it was like in front of the TV watching the Kings games, you know that kind of stuff, and so there wasn't that many like kind of hard fast traditions besides, like Thanksgiving and like the typical stuff.
Speaker 1:But what I thought about was, like man, the food is getting more and more refined. The food is getting worse for you Like, because all the you know the it's going further and further away from like source Right and that just makes it harder and harder for even the foods that might have been good a hundred years ago. Like if I'm working hard labor or, like in my, you know, I've got a farm or I've got a ranch or I'm doing a lot of like manual labor all day and I'm eating a lot of really rich, like you know, flavorful foods. I'm probably not that unhealthy in that era, but now it. First of all, the source of where that stuff is coming from is a lot more.
Speaker 1:You know, I lived in Milton, florida, for a year, which is Panhandle near Pensacola, and Milton is a very small town known for having the most churches in per square cavity of any town in America you know, but it's very it's very southern and it's very, it's very that kind of boat and and I just you know I worked at this at risk youth like outdoor wilderness facility and the food that they were getting served, I just I was like what are we doing to these kids? Yes, you know, it was just. It was amazing that even the government was kind of like that was just part of the deal. It was like corned beef hash for breakfast and like biscuits and gravy. Listen, man.
Speaker 2:I number one. I have the greatest family on the planet. I was raised by the best women in the world, because I grew up in this tiny little house and there's like 12 of us and no exaggeration. It's like walking uphill both ways.
Speaker 1:And that's kind of sort of how.
Speaker 2:I grew up and my grandmother was a matriarch Magmo she is the greatest lady ever and then my mother took over for her, out that she passed away and in my mind say takeover. So I don't want my aunts to be upset with me. My mom just kind of took over the kind of tradition. But one thing that my grandmother did was feed people. Like we lived in a not so great neighborhood and we had gangsters and we had, you know, hoodlums and we and it was it was not great, and my home, where it was sitting, was kind of sort of in the center of the neighborhood where people have to come down to the this part of the street to go either way and they go to my grandmother's house and it was like neutral territory, right. It was like nobody screws up, nobody messes up around this house right here. Because my grandmother fed everybody. You know everybody was cool and she talked to everybody and there was always Sunday dinners. You know kind of almost you know traditional stereotypical black family, right.
Speaker 2:It was always Sunday dinner, but it was always dinner, always. Anybody could ever come by, anybody would ever come. They get fed. It was always that way and it was great. And when you're poor you eat what you got right. So you don't.
Speaker 2:You don't be complaining. If you got something, then you're good, right. So you make what you was what's to do and my mother basically took over that. So every Sunday people were always coming over to my mother's house Still happens now and during the weeks. I mean hey, my mother's name is Catherine, we call it cat. Say hey, cat, what you cooking and my mother makes makes food for like 90 people.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's like three people there eating and it's great and it's delicious, but it becomes. It becomes tradition, it becomes a habit and now you're probably eating more than you should eat and not always the things that you should be eating, and that kind of thing, and I loved it and I love it. I've kind of taken over that. People come to my house and eat but then I'm feeding them.
Speaker 2:You know, spinach, spinach salads, we grilled chicken on it and homemade dressing and all these good things and it goes, it's delicious and it's great that they think that that's delicious as opposed to where is the? You know, cheeseburgers and hot dogs, which I'm cool with. But it is a tradition that once it becomes a habit and we don't learn how to take some of that tradition and use it and then other areas say, hey, we're not going to do that today, we're going to do this type of food, so there's some balance. Then it kind of it can get out of hand and that's kind of that's kind of stereotypical throughout you know, especially in our, in my community, but I'm sure in other communities too.
Speaker 2:but I can only speak for my community and it's important to kind of work through, especially for the younger kids my heaven needs a nephew that that our athletes but still have to learn to eat the way that athletes should eat at this age so they don't start to develop those issues that we have at an early age and so that's and I work with them and talk with them and it's.
Speaker 2:I wish I had somebody talking to me about that at a younger age. I had to learn all that stuff kind of on my own, but you know well.
Speaker 1:I think that's such an important thing to do is try to like be a part of breaking the cycle, at least for your family or the people that you have that impact on and have that connection with. Absolutely yeah, talk about and speaking of like connection, I mean I love that you know. As I'm doing research about you, I find out you have an acting studio here in Austin Breathe Acting Studio. Teacher H faltaeகள all the time S Great. What's your mission with that acting studio? What do you love about helping young actors?
Speaker 2:So I was an actor way before I was ever a filmmaker or writer. I did a. I don't know if I talk about this or not, but I did a film when I was a kid that was filmed in my hometown because people liked it. I did a film when I was a kid.
Speaker 1:Eight years old. Right, Eight years old.
Speaker 2:And nine because my birthday was, I guess, during the time.
Speaker 1:My son is nine, so I'm amazed because now I know what an like, how immature nine-year-olds are, Definitely, and I would say my grandmother used to always say you have an old soul and there's a lot about what I did as a young kid.
Speaker 2:I used to think at least I think and they thought that I thought a little older than I was. But I was in the movie the Color Purple the original Color Purple and it was filmed in my hometown and I had an audition for it and there's a craze there's. I got so many crazy stories around how I even got into this film that that's a whole another conversation that we can have. But once that that happened, I knew then that I wanted to be an actor and it was because of the people that were on the set that took me under their wing and really talked to me and mentioned me, and not like a kid but like an actor, like just just enough, because I wasn't an actor, I didn't know, but I was just supposed to be an extra. A great opportunity happened.
Speaker 1:No, you got to tell the story. I see they put you in the other kids at a dinner table, the dinner table, and they said just talk to each other. And they just filmed it and they kind of Look at this information. Oh, come on, this is how I, this is how I work here we got to get the good. This is such a great story, so tell, tell what happened.
Speaker 2:So so I don't know how many weeks we were into filming at this point in time and, like I said, I was just an extra bouncing around in in different areas of the film and my brother's in the film, cousins, there's a few people that I knew that was in the film. Well, one day one of the assistants came out and said hey, maurice, where's your mother? Can you grab her? And I need you to come inside of the house.
Speaker 2:And they did that with me and, I think, five other kids, and they put us all at the dinner table, their dinner table on in the in the movie, and they just had us all kind of sit around. And once we sat down, like everybody started to come into the room Steven Spielberg, overwind, free and whoopee and they were just standing around. I had no idea what was happening, what is going on, you know, and they just basically said hey, we're just going to turn the camera on and we're just going to have you guys talk a little bit. And you know it's nothing crazy, just talk. And, from my memory, not a whole scary for everybody, so not a whole lot of kids, just get quiet and shy.
Speaker 2:And that's exactly what happened during the headlights kind of experience. Exactly what happened and I did not. The crazy part is is that, from what I remember, I was watching the scene as an important scene, where she's getting ready to shave him.
Speaker 1:And she's, she's at Danny Glover, danny Glover. So so who is who is abusing her? Exactly so, you have, you have, she has the knife, she has the knife and he's cursing her out.
Speaker 2:And she's walking because this is the moment where she's really considering sorry, she's really considering you know, harming him. And I'm watching literally on, like between almost from you to me, but certainly from you to this, this, this wall here, watching that scene happen day or two before Okay. So I have a small grasp of what the movie kind of sort of is about.
Speaker 1:So I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't claim to have known what the movie is about, but I did know at the time that it was about, you know, a husband abusing his wife and all these different kind of little nuances. So I just started talking about how I thought that as a man, that if the wife did not obey the husband, that she should be disciplined. Now I didn't believe any of this. I'm just going off of what I had seen as far as the movie goes and it was just my opinion. I said in the Bible it says this, like I was using all kind of we were big church going kids, you know and in the Bible it says you should do all these.
Speaker 1:So you started like kind of weaving together some things that you'd heard from the past, Things that I've heard, stuff that I've seen nothing that I believed.
Speaker 2:I just started talking. They said talk, and I said okay, cool, and I could see, you know, them kind of chattering a little bit and I went on I don't know a minute or two for sure. And then after a while there was one girl sitting next to me and she kind of chimed in, she kind of took the other, the opposition and I was like, okay, this is cool.
Speaker 2:Now we kind of go back and forth and then after a minute or so she stopped talking and I just kept going, and when I was done I got to stand in Ovation.
Speaker 2:And when I got to stand in Ovation, the assistant said hey, maurice, I need you and your mom to meet me in the office. I said, okay, we went into the office and right away they said we want to give him a contract, we want to keep him on set for the next however many weeks, and this is how much we're going to pay him and it was more money than anybody in my family ever made. My mother almost hit the floor.
Speaker 1:I almost hit the floor.
Speaker 2:And every day that I came back after that, I had like a new line to say or a new position to be in, and it was great. What was really cool about what you, what you were asking before, is, at that time, ray Don Chong, who is Tommy Chong's doer who would be Goldberg, danny Glover, jane Zingram at the time, lawrence Fishburne people, or Larry Fishburne at the time. These people would sit with me in rooms and just talk to me. Margaret Avery, especially Ray Don Chong, we'd sit out on the balcony.
Speaker 1:She must have been pretty young back then, she was, I would say, in her 20s at that point in time.
Speaker 2:Really pretty. I remember how pretty she was.
Speaker 1:I remember from Commando Arnold Swords.
Speaker 2:Exactly right and she was the sweetest, sweetest person in the entire world and just talk to me and just not just ask me kids stuff, but just talk to me and boy, boy, whoopee, if you ever see this I say this with all the respect Whoopee Goldberg went for a walk with me and she was doing comic relief at the time with Robin Williams- and the other first girl and we would watch that and we watched it one night before we went to film and she had this one story about her, how she got pregnant with her daughter, and her daughter was on set, her daughter's in the movie as well, danny Glover's daughter's in the movie as well.
Speaker 2:And I remember asking her if that was true at eight years old. I asking her if the story that she told on Comic View was a comic relief was real. And she told me the story. There's nothing that she should have done or needed to do. But she didn't treat me like a kid, she just talked to me like I loved it.
Speaker 2:And I know that without that type of mentorship, without having people look at me as something other than some little kid who's lucky to be here, they talk to me like an individual that may get a little bit of something from what they say, changed my life, change completely changed my life, and that has happened to me a number of times in my lifetime Like I am nothing, there's no more. There's no more. There's no motivate pictures, there's no breathe action studio without some of the people that affected my life. So, when it comes to breathe as an actor, I went to school, I studied theater.
Speaker 2:I got my theater degree at Bethel in Kansas. So I knew between eight years old and 19 that I was going to be an actor. The crazy part is I never acted between eight years old and 20. I just knew it. And anything that I knew how to do as an actor I got from what I call the, the School of Denzel Washington and Robert De Niro. Every movie that I've ever seen and everything I know about acting came from them. And everybody said what are you talking about? How are you going to be an actor? I said I know what I'm supposed to do, know what I'm supposed to do. So when I got to school I found out that two years into school I found out that I didn't read very well at all. Can't be an actor if you can't read.
Speaker 1:This was when you were 20?.
Speaker 2:This is when I was 20. Okay, and I'm in school. I'm reading the loud.
Speaker 1:You're trying to sight read or you're trying to like yeah, and I always thought the good reader read fast.
Speaker 2:So I used to try to read fast to give the illusion that it was awful and I'm reading the loud in class and it was just really awful and and that was hard for me, it was embarrassing for me and as a trying to be an actor it was definitely not going to work out. And when I was at my other school and I went to school in Minnesota first and I went to school in Kansas, I had a theater teacher who, if I remember it, because I went to the school that I went to, the Denzel Washington Robert De Niro school I knew how to act, but it was learning lines and being in character and things I had never seen before. Everybody that was ever at my school had been acting since they were like 10 and in plays and all these different things.
Speaker 1:So it was different.
Speaker 2:Well, when I learned lines I was as good as anybody anybody. So I would take the time and when I did the work and I could learn the lines when I came back into perform, it worked. So I did a piece called Streetcar Name Desire, and I was in my production class and I was performing that scene.
Speaker 1:Was it the kitchen scene? It was when he blows up.
Speaker 2:And dude you know this.
Speaker 1:Oh man, I did that scene too.
Speaker 2:I loved it. It was great.
Speaker 1:You're saying obviously Stanley, stanley. Kowalski, and again, you know Right, but what a great opportunity as a young actor to like really go to that, like express that full view. It changed my life.
Speaker 2:Because what you just said, that go to my professor. At the time, when he saw it, he said something that I've carried me ever since then. He says you have this quiet intensity Because that explosion, that you're talking about.
Speaker 1:that's not me so real quick just to frame this like this. There's a specific scene where they're at the dinner table and Rose and what's the other one, the lady they're talking about stuff and he's just sitting there like kind of building, like this kind of furnace, and all of a sudden she says some little like offhanded word that he just blows up and like loses his shit all over and he just yells at them and like storms out and just you know it's a huge scene.
Speaker 2:And it's just not me, like that wasn't my personality. It's not my personality, it's not any, it's very.
Speaker 1:it's only Al Pacino. I think. He's the only one who actually like might have that in him every day, every day, right.
Speaker 2:And so for me to be able to do that and didn't see that. It was like, where did that come from? Yeah, and he goes. You know you have this quiet intensity. I've kept that my entire life. He says, hey, I want you to come to a rehearsal tonight because I'm casting a play and I think I want you to play this character. I said, great, here's my shot. I go to rehearsal. It is Antigone, playing the character Creon, which is Greek mythology. Yeah, I can't read. You know the Given Tree, which is one of my favorite books. And here I am somehow got banned.
Speaker 1:By the way. I don't know what's going on. I think so. I think so. Something's up with that. Have that conversation. I don't know about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. But. And Greek mythology is just like Shakespeare it is pages of monologues, dialogue, dialogue. Everybody else in the play are cast. Yeah, we just need this one character, creon, that he basically said. This is Creon. Yeah, before I ever read one thing, I'm spending two hours in there reading with these really terrific actors and it's the most embarrassing thing I've ever seen in my life. I was like what is happening Now? At the end of this, my story is a little different than his. He says you came to me and said hey, will you help me with this and help me read? I remember him coming to me saying, hey, once you come to my office tomorrow and we'll work on this. Yeah, either way, one of us made that happen, right.
Speaker 1:But he knew, because he'd seen the scene where you're playing Stanley, that you had that instinct. Absolutely, you had that quiet intensity, so he understood that he could work with you and solve the reading issue 100% Every day 5am in his office.
Speaker 2:For weeks this man taught me how to read Newspaper. Put it in front and read Nope, stop, slow down, go back, do this, okay, what is that B? How many syllables Bump? This man taught me how to read. His name is Travis Malone. This was in 1995-ish Travis Malone. Now I work.
Speaker 1:People like this can literally change the course of somebody's life.
Speaker 2:Not only did he change the course of my life, he is one of my dearest friends now, and he works with me at Motivate Pictures on my creative reading team. I love it I love it.
Speaker 2:It is amazing. He is the Dean of Theater at Virginia Wesley University in Virginia Beach. I've gone there and I've taught. I talk to him all the time he's on my Zoom calls. They read scripts. I now write screenplays for studios and for myself and produce movies. Because that happened, I changed my life when I created Breathe. As an actor, I moved to LA. I lived in LA for about a decade. I worked with all kinds of actors SAG actors, studio actors, young kid, disney and Nickelodeon actors. I taught here at Zachary Scott Theater before I moved to LA for about 10 years as an acting teacher for young 5-15 year olds. I always knew that I wanted to teach, but I don't like the idea of those who can't do teach.
Speaker 1:I knew I was going to be an actor. I don't think that is applicable to acting. If you are a good actor, teach. If you're not a good actor, don't teach, don't teach at all.
Speaker 2:But I didn't want to just teach. I wanted to be a successful actor and teach. I thought part of me being a successful teacher people pay attention if you can be a successful actor too. It wasn't. I never made it in Hollywood or I couldn't make it on stage, so I guess I'll teach. That never applied to me. It was just another part of what I wanted to do. What I really wanted to do with Breathe is I want to work with actors, especially locally. When I came back to Austin in 2014-15, was everybody who had any real talent had to move away to LA and New.
Speaker 1:York and develop some success.
Speaker 2:I was like no, let's put a stop to that. If I can work with you and I believe I can get you on a level to go toe to toe with any actor on the planet I'm talking about all the celebrity actors that we're talking about If I have a production company where I can make movies, then I can take my actors from my acting studio and put them in significant roles in a feature film where they get seen and they don't have to go to LA or New York. I have a body of actors that are talented and I have work stories to be told that they otherwise wouldn't get here because they're not bringing that kind of work here Extra work or under five lines or some TV show that nobody's going to either see or going to give them an opportunity.
Speaker 2:If I put them in a movie where they really get to work, they get to have an arc, they get to be the lead and carry characters 100% and that film gets seen and does well. Then they get seen. They have a body of work for the demo reel or something that's on Netflix or in the theaters where people go. Where's he at, where's she at with it? That's why Breathe started and motivate pictures. Now, every film that I've done since 2016 all star my Breathe actors. That's huge for me.
Speaker 1:That's beautiful man Just a personal note, similar reading issue and it really came to bite me in the ass when I was acting. I just memorized real as quick as I could. I came to Austin. I went down to audition at the Dirty Arts Center it was for a movie and I killed it. I would play this cocaine bad guy who's just losing his shit. They saw guy after guy after guy. I came in and I just threw myself against the wall and they were like holy shit. They were like where did you come from? I'm like I'm an actress that's moved into town.
Speaker 1:One of the producers was like I have something for you. I want to hire you to come to my house and read this whole she sent me. I was like I don't know Two days you got to memorize it. She's like I know some other stuff you had to read. Anyway, I show up there and I just I couldn't get the word. I couldn't just get there. It was humiliating because here it seemed like this moment where I was going to take another leap and it was like I just I couldn't really deliver at that level. It forced me to go back and just work on my reading out loud.
Speaker 1:I think reading is one thing, but the art of reading out loud with expression you are one hundred percent right.
Speaker 2:That's a different, that's a whole different thing, because when I memorized, I went because, like you said, I was fast, memorizer and memorizer and I was really good at it, but it was all underneath, it was all internal. Yeah, when I start reading out loud, done deal. It was not the same thing, at all.
Speaker 2:So you are a hundred percent right about that. What is really interesting about what you just said is as a as an acting coach and as a casting director, when I, when I cast or producer for my films, that taught me to not do something that they do all the time in the industry. I think cold readings Right.
Speaker 1:So take this, read this. For us, the dumbest thing, it's like what are we showing?
Speaker 2:It is the dumbest thing ever and they do it all the time because one I've seen some of the best readers no joke, some of the best readers man, oh my God, I'm never going to get this part because he sounds good reading that. Then you get him on set and he can't act at all because he can't do anything other than read. Well, but when you need him to make some adjustments, so to try some different things, they don't have the ability to do that.
Speaker 2:So hire somebody who read well, not somebody who has a skill set as an actor. To somebody who doesn't read well doesn't mean that they can't take direction and do those different things If you're going to give someone as an actor and I developed a new technique as an actor, so you know, there's Miser, there's Stanislaus I've developed You've kind of taken some of the.
Speaker 1:I studied Miser in New York.
Speaker 2:And they provide a few of those things, but it is a specific kind of method.
Speaker 2:And one of the things that I specifically say everything starts with understanding.
Speaker 2:That's the number one thing, and you can't give me something cold and expect me to understand the character, the situation, the moment in that period of time, so you have to allow me that time to do it, let alone be familiar enough with the words, to where they come out, where I'm not staring at it like this, and so I don't do that at all. I would never do a cold reading in any audition that I have, and I don't teach my students about cold reading. Well, we should do it. That's something you have to learn on your own, because I can't even teach you how to cold read, because it's not good. Either you can read or you can't. I can't teach you that, and I think it's unfair to a lot of talented individuals that they get something on the spot like that that they don't understand and we don't know the level of quality reading that they have. That's going to give them this possible good opportunity to have a really great job or not, so that alone I won't do.
Speaker 2:Also, my experience and who I am go that would have never. That didn't work for me. So I can't teach this and I don't think it's good for the talent.
Speaker 1:Well, I love kind of pulling it all back together here because I mean this could be a three hour podcast.
Speaker 2:So we're hitting an hour here.
Speaker 1:But the you know, this time in our lives, you know, one of the things I love about, you know, being of this age is like we have something to share with the next generation. We have experience, we have knowledge, we have, you know, just understanding of, like, the hardships of making mistakes and learning from them in and we can really make an impact on that next generation, whether it's our kids or students or, you know, our clients in my case. But how do you, you know, somebody comes to you and they say like hey, I want to, I want to be more fit or I want to be an actor, like what are some of the things that you're that? What are some of, like, the key things you're communicating to them about, to to get them on the right track?
Speaker 2:It goes back to what I was saying before. If, if you're coming to me and you say you want to do something, and I'm that, I'm that dude, I'm that dude that either people really love or kind of go, I shouldn't never ask more that, because I'm going to tell you the truth, like I'm the guy that tells you what you need to hear and what you want to hear, right and and that's not a negative thing at all sometimes like.
Speaker 1:You're the guy that says Well, first stop drinking coca-cola and eating.
Speaker 2:You know exactly right and they go oh man, Well then I can't help you.
Speaker 1:I can tell you all the other you don't want to hear that we're not going to start with exactly right, that's exactly the four glasses of wine a night.
Speaker 2:Probably not help probably not good for you. And if you want to accomplish what it is you want to accomplish and that's where I would be at, I like I would start. If, hey, I want to be an actor, okay you. Is it a hobby or something that you really truly want to do? That's the first thing I asked about acting, if you want, is it a hobby for you or something that you want to pursue? Yeah, because those are two very different things. If it's a hobby cool, fantastic, we can do some scene work, I can get you an understanding about the physicality of things, we can have some fun and and you do your thing and go to local play. If you want to cool, if it's something that you think you want to pursue, mm-hmm, then your mindset has to be, and the amount of work is going to require just to get the real fundamentals down, yeah. And then the time that it takes, just like fitness, to grow into who you are, your understanding of performance, your understanding of what each character needs.
Speaker 2:Your understanding of working with different directors and what they're going to need, the storylines and all those different things and the challenges. It is that comes with success right Now. If you're okay with that and it's because you're gonna get up every morning and you say this is what I'm supposed to be doing, I'm, I will roll with you all day, every day, like I'm with you, let's go. But you got to know that this is what it's going to require. And if I, for two weeks, you kind of go, uh, I think I'm done with it, then you never wanted it in the first place.
Speaker 2:Fitness is exactly that right. Say, hey, I want to look a certain way, I want to feel a certain way. Are you doing that because the summer is coming? You just kind of want to look out on the beach. Nothing wrong with that, that's really cool. So does that mean when the summer is over, you're just gonna quit, you're gonna stop doing what you're doing, and then in another six months, you're gonna be like, oh, I wish I was. Like, or is it something that you want to be consistent with and it becomes your lifestyle? Yeah, everything that I do is all my lifestyle how I eat, how I go to the gym, how I communicate all the information. It is my all day, every day, practice and if they say, this is what I want my lifestyle to be, because I want to be fit or in some decent shape my entire life. I want to feel better. Yeah, because what we put in our body doesn't help us feel that great Something. I don't feel great all the time. Well, that's a lot of what you're putting into your body. I want to feel better than we need to cut out these things, like you said, um, the the beer every day, or the the wine every night, or the fried chicken or just staying up and not and not getting a good night Not getting enough rest, and that's something that I didn't say and we didn't talk about very much You're
Speaker 2:right, like that is crucial to the success in fitness, and if you're gonna be up on your phone all night strolling through social media until 2 am and then you sleep until 10 and then nap later, like that's not healthy, for what? The recovery of the body or even helping you achieve the goals that you want to achieve? So it comes down to those healthy habits. Everything is about Healthy habits, whether it's for your work or for your fitness. You got to start. You have to understand what it's going to really require to be successful. And then I'm telling you this is what it's going to take. Now, when you go away, you have to decide are you willing to do it? Right, but I'm giving you the information that you need. Then, if you come back and go, I'm really, I'm ready, then I'm, I will roll with you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think you know, as a from the trainer's perspective, it's often that trainer is the first thing the trainer tells the person do is like we got to start working out, right, because that's obviously where we get paid, right, like I'm the gym, I'm gonna train you. But you know, if you look at the whole person and you really look at like where are they struggling most? Like the first thing may be getting good night's sleep.
Speaker 1:Hey, come back to me next week and show me that you fell asleep at 9 o'clock and you woke up at 6 Every morning. And then let's start like once you recalibrate age or sleeping habits, then we could talk about like putting your body into more stress.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, because some people get that stress right If they don't have good sleeping habits, but they really gonna struggle once they're done.
Speaker 1:The cortisol levels are high, the stress, the levels they're just, they're in a catabolic state. They probably shouldn't be strength training. They should be trying to recover. You know, and this is this, is the, this is makes. This is really the challenge, and I think it's. It's one of the reasons why, at this age Um, those who figured it out, you know, you and I look at each other. We're gonna nod each other. We almost never have a conversation.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:I know you're busy, I know you're getting work done, but it's like a nod of like yeah, he's one of the few that has it figured out and I think it's it. It's harder at this age, but if you do it, if you really figure it out, it is. You know, I don't see you as somebody's like oh, I got 10 years left and then I'm gonna retire. No, retire from what your life is amazing. Like Right, I just had this conversation.
Speaker 2:Retirement is nowhere in my like, ever in my future. It's like what am I gonna do? If I want to go, I can go on vacation Anytime I wanted to I don't have to be.
Speaker 2:I don't have to retire to do that. I don't ever want to be out of shape. Yeah, I don't ever want to stop working because I love doing what I do. I, what I do every day, is what I want to do for the rest of my life. What am I retiring from? And it keeps me motivated to live as long as I possibly can Because of the things that I do. If I retired and sat around somewhere, including cancun, I'd be like what is happening?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I give you about three days.
Speaker 2:You're like let's go. Dude, I would be like can I work for you? You guys want me to shoot a video for you here at the hotel, like I would be trying to find something to do because that's just not my mindset. Like I, it doesn't. That doesn't work for me that way.
Speaker 1:Well, I think that is one of those things. It's like a it's, it's the trick of when you don't have the energy because you're not leading yourself Well, you just are looking for moments to rest and like take breaks and be lazier, when, if you like, transform your life into that life where you work out and that gives you the energy for the rest of the day. It's like you don't want to let that go. That is the life force 100%, everything you do. I flip.
Speaker 2:This past year was one of the busiest years I've ever had. I made two movies. I shot a feature film in October and I brought all my Team in from Spain. I got it. I got a branch of Motovid Pictures in Barcelona and then and then I thought that after that I was going to take some time off November, december. And as soon as I finished shooting, like literally the day after I finished shooting, I got offered a film in Spain to be in and it was going to be shooting in December.
Speaker 2:And I go no, I need to rest, because the whole year, like I was traveling, I was doing from January, had family stuff Exhausted and I go okay, I'm an idiot, okay, I'll do. The film is great. I went to Spain. November was all based around the holidays, so there was no, no downtime then. And December 2nd I flew to to Spain and I said, okay, I'll take some time off after after shooting the film, get done shooting the film around Christmas time. And then I finally go on vacation and I took some time. We took some time on vacation and I needed it because I was just burned out and tired, but that was only so I can recover for a few weeks and I came back going let's go to work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like everything and it. It was like fitness. Like I was in, I was in Europe, I was training. Like I was, like it was as if I was home. There was no days off. There was like I was, I was training, I was eating well and my mindset was, as soon as I get back home, time to go to work. Yeah, motivated, it's gonna be doing this. I gotta build this. My fitness has to be this.
Speaker 2:I'm turning 50 in six months, so this gives me some more incentive for what the next six months looks like. So that will never change. That will never be. Boy, I just really like just not doing anything for months on end. That would drive me crazy. I can't play, there's no amount of golf, or I don't even play golf anymore, but anything that would make me say I just love doing this all day. No, no, I need my gym, I need my fitness, I need my nutrition. I push my body in places and areas because for me, I try to find new challenges for myself so I don't get too stale is why you see some of the HIIT training and things that kind of goes on in between because, again, my body can easily do some different things and so if I don't find new challenges or new obstacles for my body, I could get bored, my body can get bored.
Speaker 2:So I'm always trying to find a new way to kind of push myself to do something and stay away from injuries and that kind of thing. But that's exciting to me, that's interesting to me and it keeps my body thinking and adjusting and not getting, not plateauing as much as it possibly could, and the ups and the downs of what my brain and my body does keeps me motivated. I look for different ways to do that and I go at 50, I can still do certain things 30-year-olds maybe not able to do, and I like that. I like that. That's interesting to me. It's hard.
Speaker 1:It's a great place to be in. It's a powerful place to be living your life in and I was. You were talking before I hit the start on the recording. This is the time when men are supposed to be leaders, kings, leading people, mentoring the next generation. Like passing on the wisdom of this and you're strong enough to also. Then you don't just have to sit back in a chair and be a senator.
Speaker 1:You're supposed to be out in the front lines still and leading and showing and being an example for others to follow, and I think there's not that many of us doing that and I just I want more people to be doing that in their lives and I think it's one of the ways that we can make a true impact and leave a legacy. So we should have led.
Speaker 2:Now, we should have led with that.
Speaker 1:You cannot be. But hey, for those who lasted all the way through the 69 minutes or so they got that nugget right there. They got that nugget right there because you cannot be more right.
Speaker 2:Everything about my mindset right now especially, it's trying to be the best leader I can possibly be and lead by example not just by the words, but lead by example. Certainly for individuals in my family my nieces and nephews, my daughter, my step kids and that's really important to me and really mentoring is really important to me. It really is. I tell them all the time.
Speaker 2:If I had somebody to tell me this at this age, I would be in a better place in certain areas. So I try to provide some of the information and knowledge that either the young folks and even sometimes the older folks didn't get or don't have. If I have it, then here, because I think we're better off, we're better society, we're better individuals. Because of that and you're right, I feel like I got to a certain age in my life where I felt like that that is even more important now than I had seen it being in the past, and so I'm with you 100% on that and I embrace that. And some people run away from that, some people don't want that responsibility, and I am on the complete opposite side. I've decided and made my peace with. I think this is just part of why I'm here, and I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that.
Speaker 1:All right, there we go. Man, what an interview. I love this guy. Yeah, I personally just somebody who always wants to be around people that are just living their best life, and just I'm just so drawn to his strength, his charisma, his heart for helping others and his just complete drive and overwhelming and an urge to follow his dream. I love that. It's not just always about, of course, the health and the fitness. It's. What does that do for us? How does that allow us to be the best version of ourselves, so that we can be here better dads, be better leaders, be better business people, all those things. So that duality, that perspective, is fantastic. So you wanna find out more about Maurice's acting classes here in Austin? There's gonna be some information about that in the show notes. All right, thanks again for listening to the Mindset Forge. Let's let this interview and all the things we've been talking about help you get 1% better each and every week as we all try to max out and be the best version of ourselves Until next week. Have a great one.
